An extended reality (XR) system may provide graphics for a user using digital or virtual image information. In some cases, an XR system may implement split rendering in which the graphic workload is split between multiple components. For example, the XR system may include rendering hardware (e.g., a personal computer (PC)) and display hardware (e.g., a head-mounted display (HMD)). To generate high quality graphics, the XR system may render more than one graphic layer (e.g., multiple layers). For instance, the XR system may render each graphic layer in a different pass, then combine the graphic layers to make a complete frame.
In addition to streaming multiple layers, split rendering may also require high video bitrate (e.g., to reach an almost lossless quality) and high frame rate (e.g., to avoid judder). But throughput limitations make it difficult for video encode/decode hardware to stream multiple layers/streams at high video bit rate and frame rate. And the bandwidth required to stream multiple concurrent video streams can strain communications networks. So there may be a limit on how many high frame rate/bit rate graphic layers can be streamed at once. Techniques for supporting multiple graphic layers with high bit and frame rates in XR systems may be desirable.